This invention relates to organic carbonates and more particularly to nitro substituted organic carbonates.
In order to prepare unsymmetrical carbonates, it is necessary to react a chloroformate of an alcohol with a second alcohol. The general method for preparing chloroformates is to react an alcohol with an excess of phosgene (poisonous gas) in the presence of a base as an acid acceptor. Inevitably a greater or lesser amount of the carbonate is formed, as a by-product, which lowers the yield and requires separation of the product. In addition, nitroalcohols in the presence of base, have a tendency to deformylate, which also lowers the yield of chloroformate. A third factor is that nitro substituted diols such as 2,2-dinitropropan-1,3-diol form as major products linear carbonates and cyclic carbonates.